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Students honored at high school

Posted by: tdt -

By Robin Scott

Tammy Stamps, Health Career Promotion Coordinator with AHEC and Cindy Bryant, teacher, presented awards to the students in the AHEC I course on Tuesday, May 12th. The course is a health sciences education course offered as an elective and requires the completion of nine modules of study. Each student is required to give 50 service hours to a local health related business.

Ms. Stamps stated, “Cindy and I both teach a portion of the nine modules.” This year students volunteered for seven different medical related businesses in Dalhart. Ms. Stamps visited the volunteer sites earlier in the morning and each place had very good things to say about the students. Thank you gifts and certificates were given to each volunteer business. Teacher Cindy Bryant was also honored with a gift pack full of treats from her favorite store.

Ms. Stamps also gave gift backpacks to each student to commemorate the YHS adventure. She told the students, “Think how each item in the backpack relates to the nine modules.” The backpacks included a first aid kit; something to signify legal and ethical issues which was gum and duct tape “to keep your mouth quiet.” Also in the backpacks were a set of truly nasty teeth to remind students to brush, a tooth brush and tooth paste kit; chocolate kisses “to make it okay;” the reminder about cleanliness, an “Elmo” book; for cultural competency, a sign language card and a card with how to say hello in several languages; for observation and data collection, a magnifying glass; and for the information learned, an eraser in the shape of a brain, a highlighter, and a memory stick/flash drive. The final gift was a giant eyeball ball “to keep an eye out for anyone else who would like to be a part of the course.”

The only male student enrolled in the course, Dustin Hadley, was also called to the front of the class to receive a couple of special items in his backpack, “A blue ribbon for being the ultimate survivor of a class with 14 girls and a hand cleaner for after you work on cars.” Each backpack was imprinted with the Panhandle AMEC logo.

The students immediately took the nasty teeth out of the bag and placed them on their teeth for a huge laugh. The class was attended by all sophomores except Brooklyn Thomas who is a junior. Brooklyn stated, “I just wanted to be in the medical field, so decided to take the class. I got a lot out of it, and it has a lot of opportunities and good advantages for college. I still want to be in the medical field.”

Handing out the awards was followed by a pizza party for the students and their teachers. Ms. Stamps commented, “We wanted to do this for these kids because each of them was required to do 50 hours and most students exceeded that. We are very proud of them.”